Teacher Ken Bernstein calls our attention to a farewell column written by Roger Simon of Politico.
Simon is retiring–at least for now–but he leaves with a warning.
“We live at a pivotal time because Donald Trump and his thugs have done us a favor. They have shown us that democracy is not inevitable. They have shown us it can fail.
“In just a matter of days, they have shown us how democracy can be transformed into something evil. And we can imagine a future of jackboots crashing through our doors at 2 a.m., trucks in the streets to take people to the internment camps, bright lights and barking dogs — and worse.
“Does this make me sound hysterical? Maybe. But this is my last chance to be. In its first week, the Trump administration demonstrated its contempt for Mexicans, for Muslims and for Jews. I imagine the true list is longer. Much longer.
“Should we keep quiet as we watch this? Is this why America was created?
“If, for amusement, you wish to pay attention to the opinion polls, do so. (Jimmy Kimmel said: “Hillary underperformed with women, African-Americans, Latinos and young people. The only group she did well with was pollsters.”)
“But the most important poll was created by Henry David Thoreau when he wrote, “any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one … ”
“You are a majority of one. You have a duty to act like it. You have a duty to do something to preserve democracy. Something nonviolent, I hope, but something.
“Trump tells civil rights leader John Lewis to keep his mouth shut and then Trump smiles his porcine smile. In what fantasy land, in what delusional world would one desire the words of a bellicose Donald Trump and the silence of John Lewis?…
“We are told today that truth no longer matters. It does.
“We are told human decency is the concern of the weak. It isn’t.
“We are told civil liberties can be brushed aside when it is convenient to the wielders of power to so do. Such people should be stopped. They must be stopped.
“And there is only the people to stop them.”
thanks for passing on, Diane. I think Roger Simon’s words are quite important, and it is good that your broad audience will at least be aware of them.
Thank YOU Ken, and YOU Diane. This last column is vital for many reasons. Among them is Indivisible and how to join.
Please send this to all your contacts…and join. See Ken’s link to Indivisible.
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Lots more at the link…Ken and Diane, once more you lead us in the right direction for protest. Ellen
Diane…perhaps Carol and NPE might send out this info on Indivisible to your 300K members. It might mushroom to millions within hours as did BATS. Everyone is looking for allies today.
my post was on Daily Kos, which has already had a number of very visible pieces on Indivisible
This guide has been up and running for a while. I have circulated it to as many people as I can. Some elected officials have confirmed it has a lot of wisdom on what is likely to work and what is not.
The Senate just voted Tillerson as Sect. of State. Here are the traitor Dems who voted with the Repubs.
Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin(W.Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Mark Warner(Va.) and Independent Sen. Angus King (Maine) joined all Republicans in backing Trump’s nominee. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) skipped the vote.
We are on a disaster course toward WW3.
Reminder…from The Hill…
“Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) announced Wednesday that they would not be voting for Betsy DeVos as education secretary, potentially imperiling the nominee’s confirmation.
No Democratic senators are expected to vote for DeVos. If no other Republicans vote against DeVos, Vice President Mike Pence would be the tie-breaking vote. DeVos needs a simple majority to be confirmed”.
Ellen Lubic
No Tillerson does not put us on a path to WW3. Quite a few reasons to oppose Trump and Tillerson, a Nuclear encounter with Russia would not be high on the list . Probably not China either. .The encounter with China will likely be economic with Americans as the loser.
That said I would not want to live in Seoul South Korea, that could be leveled in 20 minutes or any part of the Middle East that this moron could set on fire.
I dIsagree with you Joel.
The disheartening and dangerous combination of a power mad Bannon who is considered by many pundits to be a a war monger and prime influence on a psychotic-seeming Trump who is out of control of his behavior, and add in Tillerson who is a close friend of Putin and has vast financial interest in developing oil drilling in Russia, and there is a scenario for disaster.
Today alone, setting aside the extreme incidents of the past few day of Trumps’s banning many people of 7 Muslim countries from coming into the US, and now his threat today to send American troops into Mexico and also alienating our closest ally, Australia, and his callous disregard for over 6 million Jews who were exterminated in Europe with the Holocaust during the last WW, there is every indication that these crazed and greed filled new leaders of the US could well be planning multiple wars. China is on notice now that America will intervene in any contact with Taiwan, and Flynn only hours ago put Iran “on notice” too.
How can you avoid looking at this plethora of aggressive incidents from only their first 12 days in office? Commentators all day today who interviewed military and legislative officials all spoke of the remarkable dangers that are poised on the edge of these words and actions.
Ellen Lubic
I am not ignoring the all of the disastrous entanglements he may get us into. That is why I said I would not want to be a citizen of Seoul, within striking distance of enough North Korean artillery to level it in minutes. Nuclear confrontation with the guy with the nude pictures is not high on my probable list.
Here is Robert Reich’s opinion…
‘America First’ Could Bring the World Closer to a Nuclear Holocaust
Posted on Feb 1, 2017
By Robert Reich / RobertReich.org
Before joining Trump’s inner circle, Steve Bannon headed Breitbart News, a far-right media outlet that has promoted conspiracy theories. (A.Davey / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Donald Trump has reorganized the National Security Council – elevating his chief political strategist Steve Bannon, and demoting the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Bannon will join the NSC’s principals committee, the top inter-agency group advising the President on national security.
Meanwhile, the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will now attend meetings only when “issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed,” according to the presidential memorandum issued Saturday.
Political strategists have never before participated in National Security Council principals meetings because the NSC is supposed to give presidents nonpartisan, factual advice.
But forget facts. Forget analysis. This is the Trump administration.
And what does Bannon have to bring to the table?
In case you forgot, before joining Donald Trump’s inner circle Bannon headed Breitbart News, a far-right media outlet that has promoted conspiracy theories and is a platform for the alt-right movement, which espouses white nationalism.
This is truly scary.
Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice calls the move “stone cold crazy.” Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who also served under George W. Bush, says the demotions are a “big mistake.”
Republican Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told CBS News, “I am worried about the National Security Council. … The appointment of Mr. Bannon is a radical departure from any National Security Council in history.” McCain added that the “one person who is indispensable would be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in my view.”
Here’s the big worry. Trump is unhinged and ignorant. Bannon is nuts and malicious. If not supervised by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, their decisions could endanger the world.
In Trump’s and Bannon’s view, foreign relations is a zero-sum game. If another nation gains, we lose. As Trump declared at his inaugural: “From this day forward, it’s going to be only America First.”
Some of you are old enough to recall John F. Kennedy’s inaugural, when the young president pledged to support any friend and oppose any foe to assure the success of liberty.
But Trump makes no distinction between friend and foe, and no reference to liberty. As conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer observes, Trump’s view is that all other nations are out to use, exploit and surpass us.
Not incidentally, “America First” was the name of the pro-Nazi group led by Charles Lindbergh that bitterly fought FDR before U.S. entry into World War II to keep America neutral between Churchill’s Britain and Hitler’s Reich.
Trump’s and Bannon’s version of “America First” is no less dangerous. It is alienating America from the rest of the world, destroying our nation’s moral authority abroad, and risking everything we love about our country.
Unsupervised by people who know what they’re doing. Trump and Bannon could also bring the world closer to a nuclear holocaust.
Trump invited Bannon and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to join the meeting where it was decided to launch the Navy Seals’ raid in Yemen, which was a disaster and killed a Seal, Trump’s first blood on his hands.
If I may add to his statement: ““We live at a pivotal time because Donald Trump and his XTIAN thugs. . . .”
Have you noticed that the talk is of THEDonald having found religion? Found it enough to pick an xtian hard core tea partier as his VP.
“In what fantasy land, in what delusional world would one desire the words of a bellicose Donald Trump and the silence of John Lewis?”
Give that man some kind of an award just for that sentence alone. Another, as Masha Gessen said, hysteric in the room with us to shout, “This is not normal!”
This is pretty good too:
Cross posted at http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/A-must-read-Roger-Simon-s-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Columnist_Decency_Democracy_Thugs-170201-442.html
Roger Simon does not sound hysterical at all. He sounds very rational and his comments are spot on. It’s as if a band of ghouls and aliens have overtaken our government and are hell bent on making anthropophagy the new normal.
This from huffingtonpost: House Republicans plan to introduce a bill Wednesday that would institute right-to-work policies in the entire country if it became law, delivering a severe blow to the labor movement.
Right-to-work laws give workers the option to stop supporting unions while still enjoying the benefits of representation. There’s nothing new about such proposals being made in Washington ― what’s different now is the political climate, which should alarm labor unions and their allies. [snip]
A spokeswoman for Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) [the jerk who yelled, “You lie,” during an Obama speech] a sponsor of the legislation, said as much in a note to reporters Tuesday.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/republicans-pursue-national-right-to-work-law-while-they-hold-the-reins-in-washington_us_5891fb30e4b0522c7d3e354d?5s8vr712tqcpd5cdi&
Why do people keep voting for this vile troglodyte, Joe Wilson?!
Joe, hysteric in this case is an artful term. Gessen meant that we must never accept this as normal behavior, even when there are many who would tell us it is. We’re in agreement.
The media is normalizing him . They still fill the 24hr cable news cycle with competing talking heads. Drowning out reality in a sea of chatter. Few hosts are able to stand up and eviscerate the Ministry of Propaganda.
ALEC has been working on this for a long time. It has a local version since 2015 offered by the American City Country Legislative exchange (baby Alec). Here is waht the national model legislation may look like and who is pushing to get it in place as a final death blow to collective bargaining by labor. Anyone who thinks Trump and his allies cares about workers is living in la la land. http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/Right_to_Work_Act_Exposed
agreed
Yesterday I was in downtown Manhattan at a rather large demonstration(20,000 +) by the building trades outside City hall . Of the 33 deaths on construction sites in NYC since 2015, 30 of them were on nonunion sites.The demo was in support of a bill to force all contractors to provide bona fide safety and apprenticeship training. .
I could not help but think that over half these workers about to be led to the slaughter voted for Trump. That the OSHA regs on construction will be the first to go. That Davis Bacon repeal which upholds wages on Federal projects will be attached to any infrastructure bill, that Democrats will not filibuster.
National Right to Work will probably not break the 60 vote threshold assuming the Republicans don’t eliminate the filibuster altogether. They will instead revive Friedrichs destroying Public sector Unions as the destroy the construction trades with repeal of Davis Bacon leaving the two biggest sectors in the Union movement dead.
Don’t worry, the Democrats will protect us from Trump: http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/30/politics/democrats-supreme-court-battle/index.html
I saw this in the Daily Kos. It is horrifying that someone who has lived in the US for years couldn’t return home because of Trump’s hatred for Muslims. I often wonder how much damage he can do to this country.
……………
It was clear from the start that Donald Trump’s Muslim ban was vile and unconstitutional. And now, it has caused the death of a 75-year old woman:
Mike Hager said he was returning home with his family that included his sick mom. They were returning home to the United States where his mother has lived since 1995. As they were waiting in line at the airport in Iraq on Friday, he was told that he could pass through because he was a U.S. citizen. But his family members – including his mom – weren’t allowed, despite holding green cards.
“They destroyed us. I went with my family, I came back by myself. They destroyed our family,” Hager said. […]
“The immigration told us that the President of the United States put an order right now – you guys cannot go,” he told FOX 2’s Amy Lange.
Hager, his niece, and two nephews were traveling with his 75-year-old mother, Naimma, home to Michigan. They traveled to Iraq to visit family and when she fell ill. Hager said he didn’t expect it to be a problem for the family to travel since they all had green cards and had lived in the United States for 20 years. […]
Naimma, lived in the United States since 1995, wasn’t allowed to come home. She died in her native country.
Hager, whose family left Iraq during the first Gulf War, and who “returned to Iraq where he worked as a contractor for the United States Special forces between 2003 and 2008 as an interpreter and cultural advisor,” laid the blame for his mother’s death squarely where it belongs:
He blames her death on President Trump. […]
Hager is mourning more than his mother; he’s also mourning the way of life he believes that makes America great.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/30/the-number-of-people-affected-by-trumps-travel-ban-about-90000/?utm_term=.e78ceb74cd4b
What will be Littlefingers Donald Trump’s Boston Tea Party, the proverbial straw that breaks the American Eagle’s back, right before the 2nd American revolution explodes across the country?
Like the original Boston Tea party, the American people have always objected to picking up the tab. As soon as he starts a trade war (if he does !!!!!!) with China and prices rise . The mobs will storm the Bastille
The problem with angry (emphasis on “angry”) mobs is they often get carried away and destroy property, hurt, torture, and kill innocent people that have nothing to do with what’s going on. People that were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I saw this and thought it perfectly explains what is happening to the US. Just how bad is Trump going to be for this country? How long before his loyal followers figure out that they’ve been taken in by a con man who has none of their interests in mind?
…….
Democratically Elected, But It’s Complicated
We’re Max Fisher and Amanda Taub, both writers in Washington for The New York Times….our word of the week is “authoritarianization.”
If a coup is like a wildfire that destroys a forest — a single, cataclysmic event — authoritarianization is more like an infestation that kills a few trees at a time, spreading steadily but quietly until the ecosystem collapses.
Authoritarianizers consolidate their power not by doing anything as dramatic as putting tanks on the street, but by slowly chipping away at checks and balances, undermining the authority of other branches of government, and restricting the free press and civil liberties. That process has already played out in countries like Russia, Turkey and Venezuela. Hungary, Poland and others appear to be following the same path.
This idea has changed the way we read the news, because it means we need to focus more on institutions in order to really understand what’s going on, and look more for initial warning signs. And something we would emphasize: Initial steps down this path can be within the bounds of the law, and they often have popular support.
…this concept has also made us nerdily obsessed with democratic norms, which can be the first thing to go.
Reuters Orders Reporters to Cover Trump Like an Authoritarian Regime: Expect ‘Physical Threats’
By Reuters
01 February 17
Excerpt: “The first 12 days of the Trump presidency (yes, that’s all it’s been!) have been memorable for all – and especially challenging for us in the news business.”
http://reut.rs/2jzkf5r